October 03, 2013 08:53 PM CDTOctober 03, 2013 11:57 PM CDTSherrington: Rangers must bridge Nolan Ryan-Jon Daniels rift, even if one of them must go

Sherrington: Rangers must bridge Nolan Ryan-Jon Daniels rift, even if one of them must go

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Louis DeLuca/Staff Photographer

The Rangers' 2013 season was officially put to rest Monday night with a signature loss - lots of opportunities, lots of waste. Before the Rangers can start to look ahead to what must be addressed, they first must look back to what went wrong and what went right. Here’s beat writer Evan Grant's handy guide to those topics:

ARLINGTON
— Having weathered one off-season that was clouded by the power struggle between
himself and Nolan Ryan and facing the chill of yet another, Jon Daniels produced
a slip of paper Thursday listing his talking points.

On the first line was scribbled, “No politics.”

Under that, “Meritocracy.”

What did you expect from a Cornell man, farmer’s daughter jokes?

The Rangers’ general manager is a smart guy. He knows if he doesn’t win,
he’ll lose his job. In order to win and keep a pretty good gig, he makes the
reasonable assumption that everyone ought to be on the same page.

That’s simply not the case with the Rangers, as was revealed again in an exit
interview with the former bench coach.

Before all this silliness goes any further and undermines another off-season,
here’s what should happen: The owners, Ray Davis and Bob Simpson, need to host a
retreat. They don’t need to roll any beach balls around the room, but they must
tell Ryan and Daniels that the organization is better with both of their
contributions. But the sniping from both sides of the aisle must stop. No more
“Nolan guys” and “Daniels guys.” Until further notice, the name across the front
of the jersey remains “Rangers.”

And if such harmony is simply impossible, either Daniels or Ryan must go.
Period.

Contrary to popular belief, Daniels doesn’t want to get rid of Ryan. As
noted, he’s a smart guy. He knows what a powerful presence Ryan is with Joe Fan,
something money can’t buy, and he surely knows what kind of backlash he’d feel
if it appeared he was kicking to the curb the most popular figure in club
history. He also values Ryan’s experience and perspective, no small
attributes.

But no matter the fallout, the Rangers can’t continue as a house divided. No
organization can.

The Ryan-Daniels relationship was strained even before ownership stripped
Ryan’s title as president last winter and gave it to Daniels. The owners based
their move on the premise that it’s a full-time job, and Ryan, an industry unto
himself, couldn’t do it part-time.

Ryan put aside his hurt feelings this season, as I expected him to do. He’s a
smart guy, too. Even in his gig as CEO, he’s the face of one of baseball’s best
franchises. It could be worse. He could have his son’s job.

Still, Ryan may once again be reconsidering his position. One of his hires,
Moore, is out, and Tim Purpura, the former Astros exec he hired as farm director
over Daniels’ objection, is being reassigned. Ryan could be excused for taking
it personally.

Whether Moore was fired for political reasons or because he didn’t give his
manager enough help, this much is clear: Coaches get fired. Moore wasn’t Ron
Washington’s first bench coach. Art Howe held that distinction. Other than
Washington, no one else objected when Daniels fired Howe, Ryan included.

You could argue that it should be the province of the manager to hire and
fire his staff, and you’d have a good point. Of course, the manager doesn’t have
to put up with it, either. He could quit. What managers generally find is that a
big league bench is more comfortable than sitting on your principles all
summer.

Telling a coach or manager to get rid of coaches is hardly unprecedented.
Coaches or managers acquiesce because it buys them a little more time.

Let’s be clear, though: If anyone is guilty for the Rangers’ season, it’s
more Daniels than Washington. The general manager didn’t provide the manager
enough offense, plain and simple.

Daniels accepts the blame. His priority this winter will be to rectify the
problem. He’s going to need a first baseman, another outfielder, probably one
more big bat and maybe a new catcher. He’ll have to acquire those pieces, he
said, with less payroll than he had to work with this year. It won’t be
easy.

He doesn’t need to make it any more difficult by starring in a soap opera.
The Rangers suffered through the same silliness last year, and look how that
ended.

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About Kevin Sherrington

Kevin Sherrington, a general sports columnist, was born in Dallas and grew up in Houston. He has worked at five newspapers in Texas. He has worked at The Dallas Morning News since 1985. He had no idea his career would come to blogging.